


so do i remind you of someone you've never met?

by librawritings



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth is a little nervous, F/M, Fluff, I have been wanting a soulmate au for a long time, Oneshot, Percy is eager, Soulmate - Colors, Soulmate AU, percabeth, percabeth fluff, percabeth soulmate, percy jackson - Freeform, we love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25060669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librawritings/pseuds/librawritings
Summary: ...A lonely silhouette?For the first six years of her life, Annabeth Chase thought that it was completely normal to see the world in various shades of gray.Color just didn’t exist as a concept in her mind. How could you know about something without ever seeing any evidence of it, or being told anything about it? None of the adults talked about colors and shades around her, or at least, she didn’t remember hearing about it. And she was a very observant child, mind you, so it’s entirely plausible that no one ever said anything about the colors of the world.Until she was six. It was shortly after her sixth birthday that her mom sat her down and explained to her the concept of color, and consequently of soul mates.Or,Annabeth doesn't believe in soulmates after the destruction of her parent's marriage. And suddenly, the sky is blue.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 221





	so do i remind you of someone you've never met?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! The title is from the song Amaryllis by Shinedown, it's very beautiful.
> 
> I do not own Percy Jackson or any characters from that universe.

For the first six years of her life, Annabeth Chase thought that it was completely normal to see the world in various shades of gray.

Color just didn’t exist as a concept in her mind. How could you _know_ about something without ever seeing any evidence of it, or being told anything about it? None of the adults talked about colors and shades around her, or at least, she didn’t remember hearing about it. And she was a very observant child, mind you, so it’s entirely plausible that no one ever said anything about the colors of the world.

Until she was six. It was shortly after her sixth birthday that her mom sat her down and explained to her the concept of color, and consequently of soul mates.

“You see the world in versions of light and darkness,” Mrs. Chase told her, “but there is so much more. You just can’t see it yet.”

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows together and frowned. “What do you mean, Momma?”

Her mom’s lips twitched up, barely forming a smile. It seemed like she rarely did that these days. “One day, you will begin to see the world a bit differently. You will see different objects in different ways, rather than just dark or light. You will see nuance, Annabeth. And it will start to occur when you make contact with your soulmate.”

This, understandably, threw six-year old Annabeth Chase into quite the spiral. Colors? _Soulmates?_ Her brain spun with questions, and she asked them rapid fire: what are colors, and what do they look like? What is a soulmate? How long did it take to find one? Did that mean that she and Daddy were soulmates?

Her mom dutifully answered each and every question to the best of her ability, though the last one made her lips press together in a flat line. Mrs. Chase answered yes to it, which made Annabeth beam – after all, that meant soulmates were good, right? Because her parents were good, and they were good together. They held hands, they kissed (blech), they smiled at each other. What was there not to like?

Of course, this way of thinking didn’t hold up for very long once she began to hear her parents argue late at night, at first in furious whispers, later in built-up shouts.

As her parent’s marriage slowly disintegrated through the years, Annabeth lost faith in the notion of marriage and love, and she began to think that she would never see the world in its actuality, with colors and beauty. Perhaps her mother had told her about colors and soulmates when she was too young, because she had spent years making up daydreams about her soulmate (he would be tall and intelligent, she decided, and he would have glasses that made him look distinguished), only for them to be shattered by her parents. What was the point in having a soulmate if it could all go so wrong, if you could scream at them and they could scream at you? What was the _point_ in seeing colors if everything broke apart anyway?

She began to think that soulmates weren’t entirely real.

Until one day, in her senior year of high school, when she walked outside and discovered that the sky was blue.

* * *

Annabeth’s day started out normally enough. She woke up at 6:00 in the morning, took a shower, and dressed for the day. She braided her hair and then looked in her mirror to make sure she looked okay for the day. Not that she could really tell what she or her clothes looked like, but it was routine.

Her shorts were dark-shaded, and her shirt was light-shaded. Her mother had taught her that when she began to want to dress herself – light went with dark, and dark went with light, and one day, when she could see actual colors, she would help her with matching clothes beyond that.

At this point, Annabeth doubted that would ever happen, for multiple reasons.

She jogged downstairs, grabbed a banana from the kitchen counter, and walked out the front door. At first, she didn’t notice anything as she walked quickly along the sidewalk. The sun was rising, so it was very bright in her eyes, and she kept her head tipped down low to avoid retina damage. As she walked, the sun rose until it wasn’t shining directly in her vision, and she was able to see.

Annabeth looked at the sky and forgot how to breathe. The banana, unpeeled, slipped out of her fingers and hit the sidewalk with a soft smack.

She had never seen something so…beautiful. Rather than looking up and seeing a light-colored sky, it had…saturated. Annabeth knew the color she was seeing was blue, and she knew it was a lighter shade, but…it was blue. She was looking up at a _blue_ sky. It was gorgeous, the prettiest thing she had ever seen in her life. Looking at it made her chest tighten and her eyes watered up and filled with tears. This was what she had been missing all of her life.

Then it suddenly clicked, and her mind started whirling a million miles a minute. She was seeing a blue sky – so that meant…so that _meant_ that she had come into contact with her soulmate. Where? When? She’d come home late last night after club and doing homework in the public library, and she hadn’t seen the night sky as anything other than a dark void. She certainly hadn’t seen blue yesterday – so she had to come into contact with her soulmate between leaving school and coming home.

Did it take time for color to develop, or was it immediate? Why was she only seeing _one_ color? Was it because she had only made cursory contact with her soulmate?

Annabeth stared up at the sky. As the sun rose higher and higher, she could see that the blue was darkening slightly, becoming richer.

If her mother lived at home, Annabeth would have walked back to her and asked all of the questions her brain had churned out. But she had moved out years ago, and honestly, she didn’t want to talk to her current mother about this. She wanted to talk to her _mom_ , the person who had explained soulmates to her nearly eleven years ago when she hadn’t been so jaded about her own.

She could go back to the house and ask her dad, but, well, Frederick Chase wasn’t very good at emotions, and since the divorce, he had withdrawn even further into his work. She was lucky to get a “hello” from him most days.

Well, that settled it. She would have to figure it out by herself.

* * *

Easier said than done, of course. Annabeth had no idea who her soulmate was, what they looked like, or even if they were a boy or a girl. She didn’t care either way – as long as they _liked_ her. As long as she didn’t end up like her parents, miserable and cold and alone.

Annabeth found that she couldn’t focus on those thoughts as she walked, because everywhere she looked, she saw _blue_. The Smith’s mailbox was blue. The doors to her high school were blue. Even the chairs she sat in every single day were a dark blue, and she had never known that before. It made her head spin, and she was only in her first class of the day.

Looking at the world through new eyes, searching for her soulmate, and keeping up with her classwork was exhausting. Annabeth had never been more grateful for lunch, where she could sit and mindlessly eat for a few minutes.

Her friend Piper, however, had other ideas.

“ _WHAT?!”_ Piper hissed after Annabeth explained – between bites of her sandwich – what she was suspecting. “So, you’ve come into some sort of contact with your soulmate and you didn’t _tell me_?”

Annabeth chewed another bite of her sandwich, taking her time before she answered. “To be fair, I just discovered it this morning, and this is the first time I’ve seen you.”

Piper leaned back into her seat, twisting her face so she was the epitome of a hurt friend. “Cell phones exist, Chase.”

“And you would have wanted to hear all the details in person anyway, McLean. You’re welcome.”

Piper grinned and pointed some finger guns at her. “You’re right, you’re right.” Having already eaten her lunch, Piper began idly braiding strands of her hair. It was a habit of hers, especially when she was scheming; she liked to have her fingers as busy as her brain. “Okay, so, you must have had some sort of peripheral contact with them yesterday. Recount every single thing you did yesterday for me, please.”

Annabeth set her sandwich down carefully and thought, tapping her fingertips together. “After school was over, I went to the Architecture club and it ran later than normal. When I went left, everything was normal…so I don’t think I ran into them at school, unless the color aspect could be delayed?” Her voice rose at the end in question, and Piper frowned.

“I’ve never heard of that before. From everything I’ve researched, it’s pretty instantaneous.”

She had heard about that, too. Nodding her head, Annabeth continued. “That’s what I’ve read, too. So, I must have run into them at the library, then, because that’s where I went after club. I didn’t leave until after the sun had set, and I went straight home.”

Piper clapped her hands together loudly. “That’s it! You _had_ to have come into contact with your soulmate at the library. Did you run into anyone there?” She leaned forward, excitement sparkling in her eyes.

Annabeth hated to burst her bubble, but it had to be done. “I didn’t talk to anyone at the library. I just did homework.” Seeing her friend’s crestfallen face, she hurried on. “But people walked by me throughout the time I was there. My soulmate must have been there, it’s the only logical conclusion.”

Her excitement came back. Piper rested her chin on her fist, leaning forward as if she was about to share a secret. “Okay, so you need to go back to the library and stake it out. They might come back or go there regularly.”

She picked at the edges of her sandwich; her eyes were cast downward as she began tearing the crust into little pieces. “I don’t know…that seems kind of weird.”

Piper scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Annabeth, we’re talking about finding your _soulmate_. Some people go their entire lives seeing the world in gray, without ever coming into contact with the love of their life.” Her words took on a fervor, and Annabeth felt a little bad – she knew that Piper was worried about not finding her own soulmate, though she always tried to play it off. “You need to find them. It could change your life. It _will_ change your life.”

Annabeth looked up at that. And before she could even censor herself, her fears began to spill out of her mouth like word-vomit. “But what if…what if we’re soulmates and they don’t like me? What if we’re complete opposites and we end up sad and miserable? What if this is all a big mistake and it goes horribly wrong?” Her voice cracked at the end, small and afraid. That was her worst fear. Her parents hated each other. They could barely stand to be in the same room as each other. The thought of living like that, of following in her parent’s footsteps…she would rather never know her soulmate at all than experience that.

Piper’s eyes softened and she reached across the table to grab Annabeth’s hands and squeeze them. They had been friends since elementary school, and Piper had witnessed the Chase’s demise. She had seen what it had done to Annabeth, and Annabeth knew her friend felt for her. Piper herself had never known her mother, and that had left her with her own deep-seated questions and concerns about the nature of soulmates.

“Annabeth…there are a lot of what ifs in life. There are negative what ifs, but also positive ones. What if you meet them and they love you more than you could ever imagine? What if they make you feel safe and at home? It’s a risk. Of course, it’s a risk. But it’s one you have to take, otherwise you’ll never know.” She paused. “Besides, you need to be able to see all of the colors. It would drive me nuts to just see one for the rest of my life.”

The two giggled.

“Okay,” Annabeth said when she stopped laughing, “sounds like a plan. I’ll go to the library after class.”

* * *

True to her word, once school was out for the day, Annabeth packed up her backpack and walked five minutes to the public library. Piper had theater, or else she would have tagged along. Luckily, the same seat she was in yesterday was open, so she settled into it and pulled her laptop out. Then she peered around the library, searching for _someone_ , anyone really, that stood out to her.

The library was mostly empty, actually, besides a librarian and an old man sitting at a computer. Annabeth was fairly positive that he wasn’t her soulmate, so she relaxed and began to do some homework. She couldn’t help herself, though – every time she heard the library doors open, her head would pop up and she would crane over her shoulder to see who was coming inside.

And thus, she waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

The first day passed without anything, and so did the second. Then the third, the fourth, the fifth. A week passed by. Two. Then the third week came and went.

Almost a month had passed, and Annabeth was growing weary of the color blue. In the beginning, she had found it to be so beautiful – looking up at a blue sky took her breath away. But now, she couldn’t help but notice how washed out it appeared when everything else was cast in shades of gray. It was exhausting, and almost painful sometimes, to look at the gray world and then adjust to the suddenness of the color blue.

The library had turned up nothing. But it was her only lead, and Annabeth was desperately clinging to the hope that her soulmate would still show.

So, like she had for the past four weeks, Annabeth trudged towards the library and spent the afternoon there doing her homework. She ate her snack, took a bathroom break, and kept working. By the time 4:00PM rolled around, she had burned through all of her homework and she wasn’t interested in staying any longer. Her dad wasn’t the best about cooking dinner, so she would have to leave soon if she wanted to eat something that wasn’t from fast food tonight.

Annabeth packed up her backpack and headed out, tossing her trash out as she went. The entrance to the library faced the west, so when Annabeth walked outside, the sun momentarily blinded her. She covered her eyes slightly with her hands, squinting in the bright daylight, when her shoulder slammed into someone else’s. She heard a “woah!”, and she stumbled, turning to face the other person reflexively.

“Sorry, so sorry,” she mumbled as she blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyes to function, “the sun blinded me, and I couldn’t see – “

Her eyes suddenly focused, and they locked onto the eyes of the boy she had just shoulder-checked, and then her world exploded.

She blinked rapidly. The first thing she registered was the color of his eyes – they were green. This beautiful shade of green that made her toes curl and butterflies flutter into her stomach. Then the rest of him registered, too – black hair with a slight wave to it, and tanned skin. He was lean, but his arms were a bit muscled too. To her slight horror, Annabeth thought that he looked slightly like a “surfer bro”.

He was blinking at her, too, a look of slight recognition on his face along with amazement. Like the clouds had parted and he was seeing sunlight for the very first time in his life, and it was a wonder to behold.

“Are you – “

“I’m sorry – “

They both stammered over each other and then froze. His voice was deep and pleasant sounding, almost musical. She was staring, she knew she was, but what choice did she have?

Annabeth suddenly realized that she could _see_. The sidewalk beneath her feet was white and cracked, and the library was white, too, but fresher and brighter. The grass…the grass was green, actually green. Everywhere she turned, she could see new colors. The car that just passed them on the road was red, and the dog being walked by its owner across the street was white with brown dots.

“I can see…everything.” Her voice shook the tiniest bit, and dazed, she turned her eyes back at the boy. He had been looking, too, but not at the world around them – he had only been focused on her.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to sound forward but…I think you’re my soulmate.”

Annabeth’s first thought was _obviously_. But then, it was a bit awkward to just come out and say it without the littlest bit of doubt. Oddly, it made her trust him. He wasn’t outwardly trying to claim anything about her, just this statement of ‘I think you’re my soulmate’. Like she could deny it, and he would accept that and let her be on her way.

She swallowed harshly. “I think you’re my soulmate, too.” She whispered, barely able to say the worlds aloud. She had been hoping for this for weeks now, but now that she was confronted with it, she could barely speak. Her stomach was tossing and turning, and she could feel the heat of a blush staining her cheeks.

His face brightened, and after a moment of contemplation, he held his hand out for hers.

Annabeth stared and it, and then gently placed her hand in his. His hand was bigger than hers, his fingers longer; he had a sturdy grip as he shook her hand. Her hand looked so small within his, but although his grip was sturdy, it wasn’t painful. Really, it felt…safe.

He grinned broadly at her, and Annabeth thought, _oh no_. That was a troublemaker’s smile, one that she could easily see herself falling for. She hadn’t known until this moment that she was attracted to smiles, but here she was.

“My name is Percy Jackson. It’s…really lovely to meet you.” He squeezed her hand in his, and then let it go. She liked that – there was nothing forceful happening in any of their intereactions.

Annabeth took a breath, squared her shoulders, and looked her destiny straight in the eyes. “My name is Annabeth Chase. And…likewise.”

* * *

Falling in love, Annabeth learned, was not easy. But it was beautiful, and although she was initially very hesitant around her soulmate, it changed when Percy showed up at her front door and invited her to go rainbow hunting.

He stood in the doorway, easy grin at the ready, hands shoved into his pockets. “I’ve never seen one,” he clarified, “have you?”

Annabeth shook her head. They had only met a few weeks before, and she was still getting used to seeing color everywhere. A rainbow sounded almost too intense – seven colors lined up in an arch, all together? She still found it overwhelming to see colors individually. She had learned that her bedroom was painted a faint shade of yellow, and her dressers were a light brown. The rug that was next to her bed was white, and her comforter had blue polka dots. Taking in her own bedroom gave her a headache, so how could she handle a rainbow?

Percy read the hesitation on her face. He was always able to judge her emotions faster than she could understand them herself. “We don’t have to, if you don’t want to. But there’s supposed to be some rain in the next town over, and it looks like good rainbow-hunting grounds.”

“Rainbow-hunting grounds?” Annabeth’s eyebrows flicked up and Percy merely grinned and gestured towards his car in her driveway. She grabbed her wallet and keys and he opened the car door for her, and then they were on their way.

Percy drove a beat-up blue sedan that had definitely seen its fair share of years, but the interior was clean and comfortable. Annabeth knew that Sally, Percy’s mom, had given it to him as a hand-me-down back in August so he could take himself to school during his senior year. She liked Sally; she was very kind and funny, but she had this occasional aura of sadness that permeated her, even though she was incredibly prone to laughter and smiles.

Percy told her it was because his dad, her soulmate, had disappeared before he had been born. It was tragic, the ending to a pairing that was meant to last a lifetime before it could even begin. Privately, Annabeth thought it was horrible but also…she thought she would have preferred that kind of end, compared to the slow death of her parent’s relationship. She would prefer the unanswered questions of a love lost, compared to a love’s demise.

Still, seeing Sally look so happy but also so forlorn at times, just in the few occasions she’s met her…it made her heart ache.

Percy had yet to meet her parent’s, and honestly, Annabeth was fine with that.

“Look!” The word escaped her lips before she could even think about it. She pointed through the windshield, rain speckling it, to the rainbow that seemed just out of reach.

“Wow…” Percy breathed, and she was inclined to agree. She thought it would be overwhelming, but it wasn’t. It was beautiful. The colors were faded, but stark against a mildly gray sky. A similar gray, she realized, to her own eyes – she had the eyes of rainclouds, something she had never connected before. Especially when she hadn’t been able to see them clearly until so recently. It was funny, that she had seen in gray for so long, and her eye color stayed that way while everything else changed.

They sat in silence for a while, staring at the rainbow. The silence wasn’t oppressive, like how it felt at home – normally Annabeth would feel pressured into keeping a constant flow of words going, to ease the awkwardness of her home and whichever parent she was with. But this wasn’t like that. She felt comfortable, and she could tell by the relaxed set of his shoulders that Percy did too.

“What’s your favorite color?”

The words flew past her lips before she could think about disturbing the peace, but Percy shot her a pleased look. He often took charge in steering the conversation between them, most likely sensing how overwhelmed Annabeth still was with the soulmate thing. They had talked so much and so often, but she was still so hesitant about lowering her barriers.

Percy barely hesitated before speaking. “Blue. I’ve always loved the water, even before I could see what it looked like. I feel at home in the ocean. I’m pretty good at surfing.” He grinned, and Annabeth choked on a startled laugh even as she filed away the fact that her first impression of him being a ‘surfer bro’ was correct.

“Blue was the very first color I saw when we first came into contact.”

Percy’s eyebrows raised. “Huh…that seems…”

“Coincidental.” Both spoke at the same time, and they grinned at each other, Annabeth less reluctantly than ever before. Would it always be so easy? Because this – _this_ – was so simple, this talking and even the banter they occasionally had. Being with Percy was as easy as breathing, though she wasn’t about to clue him in on that yet. They had agreed to take things slowly, since they had only met a few weeks ago. She was still taking his measure, though he remained steadfast.

Annabeth realized they were staring at each other, eyes locked, and broke away first, clearing her throat. Her cheeks burned, and she looked back out the window, hoping to spot the rainbow only to discover it had faded away while they talked.

“Okay, so what’s your favorite color?”

She took a few minutes to think about it. Percy didn’t mind, content to let her puzzle it out.

She had never felt drawn to any particular color once she started seeing them all, but…well, maybe that wasn’t true. Annabeth had started rereading an old favorite book recently, and she had been surprised to see that its cover was a faded red. But as she immersed herself in the words, skimming over the pages, she realized it made sense. She didn’t know _how_ it made sense, but it did. It connected within her mind, and that was that.

“My favorite color is red.”

There was a pause.

“You’re kidding.”

Annabeth turned to look at Percy, whose wide eyes were already on her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” He shook his head, pushing his hair back from his forehead. “It’s just…the first color I ever saw was red. I saw red apples, at the grocery store. That’s…how does that work?”

Annabeth was just as flummoxed as he was. “I didn’t know…does that mean something?”

“It has too. Doesn’t it?” Percy paused, swallowed harshly, and looked at her once again. “I would very much like to hold your hand right now.”

The sudden proclamation made her laugh. It was so sudden, and she hadn’t been expecting it, so she laughed. It took a second, but then Percy was laughing too, and Annabeth gently reached her hand across the console and he took her hand in his. She remembered shaking his hand when they first met, and how small her hand seemed in his. It still was tiny, but that feeling of security was even stronger now. She knew Percy wouldn’t hurt her, ever.

“This is nice,” she commented, grinning to herself. “I’m so glad you decided to announce that you wanted to hold my hand.”

Percy groaned. “Shut _up_ ,” he grumbled, though she could hear the laughter in his tone. “I’m never going to hear the end of this. That was so embarrassing.”

“You’re right,” Annabeth replied amiably, “I will be bringing it up for the foreseeable future. Prepare yourself.” She giggled when he sighed, and she squeezed his hand. He squeezed hers back, and she felt butterflies in her stomach once again.

Percy wasn’t a braniac like her. When he went to the library, he went straight towards the DVDs, while she turned towards the books. His favorite time in school was lunch, while she enjoyed learning about history (though he had a knack for Greek and Roman mythology). He didn’t wear glasses, and he definitely did _not_ look distinguished a majority of the time, in spite of her six-year-old self’s hopes. He was, however, a good six inches taller than her, so that particular wish did come true.

He was also clever and even shrewd at times; she was book-smart, and he was street-savvy. They were different people in some respects, and the same in others, and found compromise when possible. That’s what made them work. Percy didn’t care as much for school, but he enjoyed it when she read books out loud to him. Annabeth didn’t care much for Star Wars, but, well, Percy’s excited face made it worth it to watch, and then she found herself enjoying it too, though she would never admit it out loud.

They held hands often, and Annabeth’s heart soared every time she reached for him and he reached right back. Finally, everything was falling into place. With Percy by her side, she felt content and at peace. Nothing was impossible.

And that first kiss…man. She wouldn’t say there had been fireworks, exactly, since neither she nor Percy had ever kissed before, but once they figured it out…there were definitely fireworks, sparks, all sorts of romantic metaphors all thrown into one.

She was happy with Percy by her side, and all of the colors in the world cast around her.

Maybe soulmates were kind of a thing, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this sweet little fic! I've been struggling with writing due to my heavy course-load...and then I took two months off once the spring semester ended, until now! Please let me know what you think, and I hope you are all safe and healthy <3


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